Rating: 
Summary: not convinced
Review: It was fascinating to read about the different generations in American history but the details of S&H's theories are so general that it is impossible to prove the theory valid. They also do not include any evidence that would deny their theory.This book is a good read but it is the only S&H book worth buying. The others are merely a rehash of this one. My main issue with the book is that it only really examines a relative few of each generation and makes very broad generalizations. Most of the evidence they have for their theory of history could be explained by other factors such as technology, the economy, and attitudes towards raising children.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating primer on generations, slightly dated now
Review: Make no mistake, this is a fascinating study of generations, and worth reading, but read today it's slightly dated. The authors present a 4-part repeating generational cycle, and fit each American generation into that cycle. The "Lost Generation" of the Prohibition era were a reactive, "bad boy" generation; the "G.I. Generation" which came of age during the Great Depression and WWII were a "civic" type, the "Silent Generation" a quiet, conformist "adpative" type, the Baby Boomers an "idealist" type, Generation X another reactive type like the Lost. At the time this was written they were predicting that the next generation after Generation X, which they named the Millennial Generation, would be a civic-type generation, and they gave a few anecdotes to support this prediction. They also made some reaching predictions about what Generation X, which they had named the 13th Generation in this book, would be like in the 1990s. Their predictions about Gen X turned out to be pretty close to the mark, and they expanded on those in their book "13th Gen: Abort, Ignore, Retry, Fail". It remains to be seen whether their predictions about the Millennial Generation will come to pass though. That generation were small children when "Generations" was published, and today they are just starting to enter college. In addition to a four-part repeating generational cycle, the authors also believe that these generations drive a repeating cycle of secular crises and spiritual awakenings. "Generations" is a good primer on these cycles, but when this was written the theory was still rough around the edges. If you're interested, after reading this move on to "The Fourth Turning", where the authors have refined and further developed their theory, and incorporated hindsight of how events turned out in the 1990s.
Rating: 
Summary: Generations: The History of America's Future 1584-2069
Review: More than any other book, Generations has given me insight into generational trends. I started the International Youth Hall of Fame, a non-profit that helps communities come together to value and appreciate their children, and Generations has helped me to better understand needs and trends of the different age groups I deal with. It has also helped me to understand that our patterns are cyclical. I found the closing to be especially hopeful and stimulating and use it often when I speak.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Theory, Informative Book
Review: Strauss and Howe's theory of a generational cycle is amazing. However, even if you do not buy into the theory, Generations has other merits. In trying to prove their theory, the authors have written a generational history of the American people. While most history books focus on great events, Generations examines the relationship between events and people. Much of their theory relies on an older generation shaping an event while the event shapes a younger generation. I was very impressed how they showed how generations move through time and reacted differently to various historical events. As for their theory, if they are right then the cycle will continue and we will be able judge for ourselves if events have followed the path that Straus and Howe predict.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: Thanks to two brilliant authors, as a first born Gen-Xer (1961), I now understand why society treats my cohorts and I the way they do. This book is nothing short of genius. Strauss and Howe have helped me on a personal level and business level. Personally I completely understand my place in society today and the future. Furthermore I can alter that future if I choose too. On a business level, for marketing purposes, I now have a solid knowledge of the living generations. And the authors glimpse into the future is a tool I can use to help guide my business in the coming years. Like Harry S. Dent, Ken Dychtwald and Larry Williams, Strauss and Howe support their future theories with rock solid evidence from the past. Over and over again their theories are validated. I can't thank them enough for the peace of mind their work has given me. I'm really looking forward to reading their book, "The Fourth Turning".
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: Thanks to two brilliant authors, as a first born Gen-Xer (1961), I now understand why society treats my cohorts and I the way they do. This book is nothing short of genius. Strauss and Howe have helped me on a personal level and business level. Personally I completely understand my place in society today and the future. Furthermore I can alter that future if I choose too. On a business level, for marketing purposes, I now have a solid knowledge of the living generations. And the authors glimpse into the future is a tool I can use to help guide my business in the coming years. Like Harry S. Dent, Ken Dychtwald and Larry Williams, Strauss and Howe support their future theories with rock solid evidence from the past. Over and over again their theories are validated. I can't thank them enough for the peace of mind their work has given me. I'm really looking forward to reading their book, "The Fourth Turning".
Rating: 
Summary: Generation x is doing just fine
Review: The death of Pat Tillman and all of the other heroes of our military fighting for our freedom in this world wide war of terror is a shining example of the greatness of generation X.
The authors theory that this reactive generation X is not worthy of greatness is just not valid.
Rating:
Summary: Easily in the top 5 of history books, arguably Number One
Review: The theme of the book is that American history follows a repeating pattern comprised of four sequential "cohort generations" roughly 22-years each in length, thus the pattern repeats about every 88 years, give or take. This is slow reading, but well worth the effort. If you expect to skim this book and get anything but sophomoric value out of it, forget it. The amount of research and scholarship to conceive the theory and back it up with examples is staggering to contemplate. No writers in the 20th century come even close to developing such a theory so well, although the authors readily admit that the seminal concepts for such a theory were suggested by half-a-dozen or so writers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They use tables and figures to very good effect at appropriate places, and have extensive appendices and a helpful glossary to help you try to keep the nomenclature they use straight. Find the glossary and refer to it often after you begin reading. At the very end of the book they pull summarize their theory in a comprehensive one-page table that can be used as a check list of the concrete supporting facts and characterizations they develop in the rest of the book. The Appendices explain the why and how of developing their theory. Source material is extensively documented in Endnotes, with an extensive list of additional reading, as well as a Name index. The Table of Contents is very helpful for going directly to material and sections. It reflects their organized, methodical approach to their explication of the theory. It is a great piece of scholarship that I wish I had known about when it was first published. I was halfway through it, and ordered several more to send to friends and relatives. Of the generations of which I have personal knowledge, they seem to be dead-on with their descriptions, finding something good and bad in characteristics of each of them. It is timeless as to those generations which have passed completely away, and time will tell about their objective assessment of the endowments that current generations will leave for the future. Be forewarned that the authors' objective assessment of the personality characteristics of the "Boomers" (the cohorts from 1943-1960) do not paint a very nice picture of them from their "rising adult" phase through "midlife" through "elderhood". Arrogant, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-righteous, intolerant. As I said: dead-on. They still have a chance to redeem themselves as Elders (but I'm not holding my breath). Every history book I read from now on will be with the benefit of the insights I gained from this book. The Iliad and the Odyssey are worth a re-read from point of view of the concepts in this book. As another reviewer said, buy two, and keep one on hand to give to someone you like who you think will benefit from it.
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Summary: A Liberal Boomer View of US History
Review: This book by the two authors was a great dissapointment to me. The facts are molded to support there theory. The Authors degrade the reactive generations of Liberty, Guilded, Lost, and 13er. The Authors seem to look down upon these generations because they are conservative and vote republican. As a conservative republican 13er, I was very upset about the portrayal of my generation. I feel that Sept 11 2001 totaly destroys any merit that the authors theory has. This secular crisis event has occured during the rising adulthood of my 13er generation.
I feel strongly that my generation has handled this crisis excellently. Like the GI generation of the past we have bonded together to keep this country strong and safe.
Fron the heroic firefighters in new york city to our military woh have won great battles in Afganistan and Irac and are transforming the Middle East into a region of democracy, my 13er Generation has responded magnificantly to the greatest attacks on the US soil since the bombing of Pearl Harbor during the GI Generation. But I understand that two liberal boomer authors would never give credit to our generation for these accomplishments. The Authors theory thus does not have any merit and thus is only an interesting opinion of there view of history.
Rating:
Summary: About as accurate as any other prophecy
Review: This book, along with William Strauss and Neil Howe's whole series, left me unconvinced as a theory of history. As a means of predicting the future it is no more useful than any other method of prophecy, perceived continuation of history, or crackpot claim at being able to predict the future through cycles or methods. Their descriptions of the various generations throughout history (e.g. Baby Boom, Lost Generation, Silent Generation), all fit neatly into four "types" of generations (idealist, reactive, civic, adaptive), are generalized and vague enough with enough different attributes that you could find a characteristic from each archetype to describe practically any person. A lot of out-of-context quotes and stories are used in a weak attempt to convince the reader that a certain generation was idealistic, or was one of brave adventurers, or held certain political views. The traits ascribed to personalities of generations are mostly stereotypes the authors assume everyone can agree on, rather than traits with tested evidence of appearing in a certain generation more often than others. The predictions the authors made for the 90s, made when this book was written in 1991, are completely unimpressive. Looking back, many of the authors' predictions have obviously not come true though they said they were supposed to, and about half of their "predictions" described things that were already happening at the time they were made -- Xers (or "13ers", as they use) struggling with the economy, parents being strict, the religious right taking hold among Boomers. Strauss and Howe make a claim that different archetypes raising children are responsible for generations, but they do not explain why generations were as they are in the earlier centuries, when generations were thirty or forty years long and a generation would be raised by the generation directly before it, or even by people born earlier in the same generation! The "generations" they recognize and the way they fit their assigned archetypes become a little contrived at times, and some generational boundaries (such as 1981/1982 for Xers and the following generation) have not stood well. Things have changed so much technologically and culturally in an unprecedented way, and they fail to take this in account, making the next few decades sounding almost like a rehash of World War II and the 50s. For authors who like to say that "history doesn't remain the same", maybe they should apply that to the continuation of their perceived cycle of history and generations as well.
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